Pioneer Day with Soul – Part III

We draped a sheet across a metal trellis and called it a covered wagon. We used the sacrament table for Jane James’s bed. We let Elijah Able use the podium, and we put the choir in the cushy seats by the piano and organ.

This was our Genesis meeting on Sunday, March 5th, 2000. We debuted my play I Am Jane to a diverse audience that included LDS apostle David B. Haight, whose ancestor had been in Jane’s 1847 pioneer company, Elder Alexander B. Morrison, who had written about the LDS Church in Africa, and Elder John Groberg, whose mission in Tonga was about to be the subject of a movie.

The audience was full. Newspapers had announced it, and we could not accommodate all who came. People were hungry to know more about Jane Elizabeth Manning James, portrayed in this debut by Denise Cutliff.

One audience member was a direct descendant of Jane James, but was bitter about how the Church had treated her parents. I doubt she liked the play, but I didn’t ask her. I quit looking for Jane’s descendants, assuming that all would be similarly bitter.

I was wrong.

Louis Duffy, Jane’s great great grandson, had inherited treasures from his ancestors, and understood their value. From his grandmother, Nettie James Leggroan, he had inherited the silver spoon broach she wore in her portrait before her early death from a heart condition. From Martha Stevens Perkins, granddaughter of enslaved pioneer Green Flake, he inherited a square of delicate embroidery—a small handkerchief, perhaps. From Jane herself, he inherited a map of the pioneer trek.

Nettie James Leggroan wearing the broach Louis inherited

Darius Gray and I received a letter from Louis just after our black pioneer trilogy (Standing on the Promises) was published. He had noticed a couple of missionaries near his Los Angeles home—in an area where he had never seen missionaries—and invited them in. He told them that he descended from Mormon pioneers, and got the predictable, shocked look when he revealed that news—the look that says: “But you’re—well—BLACK!” Amazingly, one of the missionaries had seen my play, and asked Louis if he had ever heard of I Am Jane. He proceeded to tell Louis the plot. “That’s my great great grandmother!” Louis said. He then went online and found our books, which he ordered via express mail. A voracious reader, he read all three twice within a couple of weeks. Then he wrote to us.

We (Darius and I) met him a few months later and felt instantly that we were all family. It would be many years before he would see I Am Jane, but by the time he did he was already deeply connected with those who portrayed his ancestors, particularly with Tamu Smith, who played Jane.

This is my brief interview with Louis:

1) How much did your mother tell you about Jane?

It seems to me that I have always known about Jane, but not a lot about personal details in regards to her early life. I do know that she was born a free person of color and that she lived with Joseph Smith until shortly before his death. The Pioneer Travel Map had always been on the walls of our home and my mom would often show me the route that the Mormons took to get to Utah. From what I remember, the map was passed on to Sylvester by his mother Jane. He gave it to my mom when she was in her mid-teens and I received it when my mom passed away. I donated it to the SLC Genesis group in memory of Jane and my mom.

2) How has learning more about Jane James affected your life?

Learning about Jane’s life story has simply ALTERED my life! I’ve become more empathic and less accusatory.

3) Tell a little about the friendships you’ve developed as Jane’s story has been told or monuments dedicated to her and to her posterity.

The friendships which I have thus far obtained from my associations with members of the LDS faith have proven to be everlasting and true in all manner of friendship. Yet, the acknowledgment and the dissolving of racial impediments is still a paramount concern of mine among the general population of Mormons. It’s beyond social norms and mores but holds strong religious-based teachings. And that needs to be changed.

4) You have a photo of a beautiful woman dressed in a cap and casual pioneer clothes. The photo was not labeled, but you always felt it was your great great grandmother. Jane’s identity was finally verified by a sculptor who took facial measurements and compared that photo with others of her. Could you talk about that?

The photo that I discovered of Jane was an amazing find. And I do believe that there is/was a spiritual guidance that directed me to that particular picture. Yes, the voice did say to me: “I Am Jane, and I am your great great grandmother.” The second time that I felt Jane’s presence was at the cemetery when we dedicated the headstone in memory of the children and grandchildren. Jane was there, admiring and thanking all of us for our love. The third time I experience Jane’s presence was at the June – 2010 event of “I Am Jane.” Towards the end of the play when Jane is making her transition from life to death, I also felt my mom’s presence. They were together! As you know, they passed away on the same date – April 16th. I cried, I couldn’t help it. I thought of Sylvester, too.

I always intended I Am Jane to be an intimate, small play, suggesting Jane’s unpretentious life. What I’ve found after over a decade of various runs of the play is that Jane’s question to President John Taylor—“Is there no blessing for me?”—resonates with all of us as we contemplate our most difficult moments. Her faith and tenacity offer us strength.

As the show ends, Jane comes onstage after her death, and Elijah Abel addresses the audience: “Now you all know that many things have changed for us since the days of this story. There’s still struggles, don’t get me wrong. But I haven’t wearied of the struggles. Have you, Jane?”

Jane answers, “Wearied? Why, I’m stronger than I been in years! Besides which, I can see like my eyes was new! All these folks are remembering me–I feel near resurrected!”

Comments

Margaret, Thanks for posting this. I lent my copy of your trilogy on Monday to a friend who never heard about African-American Mormon Pioneers to Utah. She was quite incredulous of my explanation/story about what happened. She started reading and has told me she is amazed she never knew this. I didn’t know what to say to her other than many members simply do not. I do only because my mother went to church with descendants of these pioneers in Salt Lake. Thanks for this post and thanks for writing your wonderful books.

Aw thanks, Steve.
Aaron, I should mention that we are republishing our books, and they should be out in September. We know so much more now than we did when we first wrote them, so we’ve corrected our errors (yes, there were a few) and added some significant details we didn’t know about when we first published. For one thing, now that Connell O’Donovan has provided such rich information on Q. Walker Lewis, who is mentioned only in passing in our trilogy, we thought he was due some attention.
And I agree. We still do not know these black pioneers. Even Jane Manning James, the most famous of them, is largely unknown.

Oh, another fun fact. As it happened, we followed Louis’s direct line in the trilogy. His mother is mentioned in an end note in the third book. So as I was trying to imagine the characters, Louis actually knew them. I had not been able to find Nettie’s death date, and so estimated it. Louis provided a note from his mother which gave Nettie’s exact date of death, and also sent me the picture seen above. I had looked for Nettie so hard that seeing her picture was my own tearful moment.

Margaret, I would love to see your play. I’ve read the first of the trilogy and finally got around to watching “Nobody Knows” about a month ago. I got another copy and started circulating the second around the ward. It is a great work you’ve been doing.

I’ve wondered if Jane had allowed herself to be sealed to Joseph and Emma back when they offered if that would have strengthened her case with BY and JT later, but I don’t think it would have. Nothing in Elijah Abel’s past seemed to help him. They were truly Inspiring people to be so strong and humble to carry on as well as they did.

James Taylor wrote and recorded a song about Martin Luther King a few years ago, and this series reminded me of the opening lyrics, to which we might substitute the names of any of these black pioneers:

“Shed a Little Light”

Let us turn our thoughts today
To Martin Luther King [or Jane Manning James or Elijah Abel, et al]
And recognize that there are ties between us
All men and women
Living on the earth
Ties of hope and love
Sister and brotherhood
That we are bound together
In our desire to see the world become
A place in which our children
Can grow free and strong
We are bound together
By the task that stands before us
And the road that lies ahead
We are bound and we are bound

There is something so special in rekindling these attachments, and attempting to start the long healing process between The Church and our (now dead) brothers and sisters and their living kin. It is a noble task to take on, I am blessed to read about it and am more than glad that you have posted these stories here for us to read as well. That way we can all catch a small glimpse of the pain, hope, and prayer that touched these lives.

I wish I could communicate how magnificent Louis is. Whenever I call him, he’s in the midst of helping someone else, or on his way to do something good for someone. When my kids and I had a 6-hour layover in Los Angeles after a summer in Guatemala, Louis picked us up, took us to the beach, treated us to a lunch which my daughter still remembers as the best she’s ever had, and then made sure we got safely on the last leg of our flight. I am so grateful to consider him my brother.

Thank you for sharing this experience. I have been working on a project which involves Mormon pioneers, mostly women, no relations of mine, and I have had a delightful time collaborating with some of their descendants and sharing the historical adventures with people who may or may not know much about their ancestors. I haven’t found any proof that the black pioneers I’ve written about, Marinda Redd Bankhead and Hark (Lay) Wales, have any known descendants, so their stories are sent out into the world to their spiritual and historical descendants, the members of the Church that exists due to their sacrifices and the sacrifices of so many early Saints.

Anyway, Margaret, it’s delightful to hear about your experiences bringing history forward into people’s lives and giving all of us an emotional, useful connection to the past.